CCR Magazine

Experian®, the global information services company, today revealed the UK’s hotspots for malicious damage, escape of water and accidental damage insurance claims.

By analysing claims data from leading insurers alongside a wide range of demographic and lifestyle attributes, Experian has created a new series of Perils models. These predict the likelihood of a man-made peril event in a given location and the financial loss insurers are exposed to.
 
As a result, Experian has created risk indices - ranking areas of the UK according to the number of households in each postal area that feature in the highest risk band for each Peril nationally against the total number of households in each area.
 
Experian’s data insight shows that Liverpool, Birmingham and Coventry are prime locations for malicious damage to households and vehicles insurance claims. Over 40 per cent of households fall into the highest risk band. Households in Liverpool, the most at risk postal area, are three times more likely to be included in this grouping than the UK average.
 
Areas in the East of England feature strongly in the highest risk locations for escape of water and accidental damage claims. Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich and Peterborough occupy the top four places in both risk rankings, due to the concentration of the types of houses and households that see high instances of these claims.
 
Gavin Snell, Managing Director of Consumer Information Services at Experian, said: “By delving deep into insurance claims data and comparing it against a whole host of demographic and lifestyle attributes, we are able to define patterns that provide very accurate predictions of risk.
 
“For example, there are high instances of accidental damage amongst families with grown-up children and the wealthy retired; escape of water is most common amongst financially stable families living in detached houses built after 1980; and malicious damage is particularly frequent in densely populated inner- city neighbourhoods.
 
“By considering these and many other factors together, insurers will have hugely valuable information to help with the pricing of their policies.”

(Source - Experian News Release)